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IPFS News Link • Islam-Islamic Affairs

Islamic State Positions Tracked by U.S. Satellites as a Bonus

• http://www.bloomberg.com

U.S. early warning satellites and sensors designed primarily to detect the launch of missiles carrying nuclear warheads are providing daily streams of intelligence on Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria, according to defense officials.

The system, using a satellite built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and equipped with sensors from Northrop Grumman Corp., detects heat, or infrared signatures. Combined with electronic and signals intelligence and video gathered by reconnaissance drones and aircraft, the satellites are helping to compile a running portrait of Islamic State ground positions.

"Overhead persistent infrared information from" the Space-Based Infrared System, or SBIRS, "is used daily as one of multiple streams of intelligence information in theater," Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, the Pentagon's top spokesman in Iraq, said in an e-mail. The capability "enables us to ascertain where kinetic events like explosions are happening because the technology can track heat signatures with great fidelity," he said.

The satellites and sensors "would be capable of detecting any sufficiently intense explosions in ISIL-held territory," Jeff Richelson, author of "The U.S. Intelligence Community," said in an e-mail, using an acronym for the terrorist group.

Intelligence-Gathering Push

Disclosure of the satellites' use illustrates the full-court press that the Pentagon, Air Force and intelligence agencies are exerting to gain information on Islamic State operations. U.S. and coalition intelligence drones and reconnaissance aircraft have flown about 18,000 sorties against Islamic State since August 2014. That's in addition to new, highly classified offensive cyber operations.

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